1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to network printing and in particular to a method of printing documents on a network printer. The invention also relates to a computer program product for implementing the method and a system for printing documents, comprising a source station of a user, a printer and a network connecting the source station and the printer, wherein the method is implemented.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A method and system for printing documents are generally known. For instance, the Heidelberg Digimaster® 9110 manufactured by Heidelberg Digital LLC comes with a printer driver having a paper catalog from which a user may choose the print media he or she wants to print a print job on. The paper catalog in this system can be programmed and exported to other users so that they may import it into their workstations, such that every user has the same choice of media.
There are also systems, such as the one disclosed in applicant's European patent application No. 04075139, in which a printer driver allows the user to select specific media properties, such as the size (e.g. A4) and the type (e.g. tabulated paper) and specify the selected media properties for the print job. Not-specified properties may be automatically set to system default settings.
A drawback of the known systems, however, is that a user cannot divert from the possible choices for media as pre-programmed. If the user wants to use a special, e.g. self-provided, kind of media for a particular job, he cannot program that media in his printer driver. In that case, he must bring that media to the printer (or, when the printer is located in a central repro office, to that office) and ask the operator to use it for his particular job. Or, he may include his special media in the media catalog of his printer driver, so that he may specify it for the job. Then, he must further have the media catalog of the printer adapted to also include the special media. After the job has been printed, the special media must again be removed from the catalog, since it was intended for a particular job and will not remain available at the printer. Such processes require more effort than a user normally is prepared to, and, moreover, disturb the operation of the repro office.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0117639 discloses a print system in which a new, locally unknown media may be added to the set of selectable media even during the set-up of a print job. However, there the media is retained in the set after finishing the job.